I don’t normally review an ongoing series until I’ve at least completed the season, but after I spent the weekend catching up with the first three episodes of The Bridge, I felt compelled to review them. So far I’m not a fan, but I could be biased because in 2002, I saw the documentary, Señorita Extraviada, which focused on the mass murders of women since 1993 in Juarrez, Mexico (& it is STILL happening). It made a huge and devastating impression on me. The documentary really tried to stop the spin that it was just one crazy American. After he was jailed, the murders continued and suggested something more sinister-a union between drug cartels and police. The documentary also demanded that people stop saying that the women (which included many children) deserved it somehow or were prostitutes, but normal people-children going to school or women going to work.
I feel like in just three episodes, the series managed to obliterate over a decade of hard work to destigmatize the women and expose the killers as a banal melding of institutional corruption than sensational serial killers.
In addition, unlike The Americans, FX’s graphic portrayal of sex does not challenge the underlying gender politics of the official narrative, but reinforces it. Even with the detectives, there is a constant sexual undercurrent that seems wedded intimately with the crimes. The male detective is sensitive and macho. People obsess because he had a vasectomy, but he assures them that he is still virile. His wife is jealous of his new pretty partner. Widows fall over themselves to get to him. The female detective is awful, awkward and promiscuous albeit for an ostensibly legitimate reason. Underage prostitutes love their work, and random Mexican women throw themselves at an American reporter unless the Mexican woman is a lesbian-then we can maybe take them seriously as long as the lesbian’s sexual activities aren’t depicted.
I’m willing to admit that I’m probably reading too much into it and am overly sensitive. I am open to knowing what you think is awesome about the show that I’ve probably missed. It is a fictional depiction of a factual ongoing crime so it has no obligation to be accurate, but it does seem to spiritually side with the real life official narrative as opposed to the feminist one expressed in the documentary which sympathizes with the victims and their family. It doesn’t make us feel uncomfortable. It is more like a tedious crime serial that uses the sensational aspects of the case to add legitimacy to its trite narrative.
*****
UPDATE:
I’ve now seen the whole series & I have two conflicting thoughts about The Bridge.
If I look at the first season as an awesome prequel to establish the character arc for Marco as a cop with a double life and Charlotte as a crime boss/informant, then it is perfect. The last couple of episodes really crackled as these two characters finally stopped being nice guys and just chose to do what they wanted to do.
On the other hand, I consistently hate shows that use real life events to elevate a story that on its own is reminiscent of Se7en & may not have held the audience’s interest without using a real life tragedy to add gravitas to the story. I actually would have preferred the mystery without using the ongoing femicide of Ciudad Juarez. And the last two episodes seem to promise, “OK. NOW we’re going to deal with it head on,” but that is what was implicitly promised before. Fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me.